Tag: Larry McGinnis

Sire Of Sires, WinStar Farm’s Champion Speightstown Euthanized

Speightstown (Gone West–Silken Cat, by Storm Cat), Eclipse Champion Sprinter in 2004 and among the leading sires of the past 15 years, had to be euthanized Friday, Dec. 8, due to foot issues from old age, WinStar Farm announced in a press release Friday. Speightstown, a Taylor Made/WinStar stallion, was 25 years old.

“Speightstown was a foundational sire for WinStar and helped stamp our legacy as a sire-making farm,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “I want to thank Larry McGinnis and his team for all the love and care they gave “Speighty” as he was lovingly called. They helped him through three colic surgeries, and he had none in the last 13 years. His progeny ran on dirt, turf, six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, and they always showed their grit. Like with any family member, he will be truly missed. We are fortunate to have his son Nashville in the shedrow, and we look forward to seeing Speightsown's legacy continue through him, and as a broodmare sire.”

WinStar's longtime Stallion Manager Larry McGinnis said, “We've been through a lot together in the last 19 years. We'll miss our friend.”

Bred in Kentucky by Aaron and Marie Jones, Speightstown first made headlines as a yearling when he sold for $2 million to Eugene Melnyk at the 1999 Keeneland July sale. In that era of heady prices, he was the co-fourth highest price of the exclusive sale with the first- and second-leading prices also for yearlings by Gone West.

In addition to being by Gone West, a Grade I winner who was among the leading sire sons of Mr. Prospector, Speightstown was out of Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Silken Cat. The now-deceased mare produced Speightstown as her first foal and 2017 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. winner (and MGISP) Irap (Tiznow) as her last foal. She is also the granddam of two additional graded winners. Silken Cat's fifth dam was the Meadow Stud blue hen Hildene, whose five stakes-winning foals included Hall of Famer Hill Prince and additional champion First Landing.

Niggling injuries kept Speightstown from immediately showing his best on the track. He made only one start at two, finishing 13th and last in a Saratoga maiden special weight. On the bench for five months, he broke his maiden at Gulfstream in his sophomore debut by 6 3/4 lengths and eventually took three straight allowances before closing his season with a second in the GII Amsterdam S. Again benched, this time for 21 months with a knee injury, he completely missed a 4-year-old campaign and reappeared for just two starts at five that yielded a Belmont allowance win and a runner-up finish in the Jaipur H. before another 10 months on the sidelines.

Speightstown | Lee Thomas

It was at the age of six that Speightstown shone. Running in the Melnyk colors under the tutelage of seven-time Eclipse champion trainer Todd Pletcher, he started his campaign with his first black-type victory in the Artax H., then went on a three consecutive Grade II-win tear: the Churchill Downs H., the True North Breeders' Cup H., and the Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. He equaled the six-furlong track record of 1:08 at Saratoga in the Vanderbilt. A third in the GI Vosburgh S. snapped Speightstown's four-race win streak, but he came roaring back to win the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, held that year at Lone Star Park. Voted Eclipse champion sprinter, Speightstown retired with a record of 16-10-2-2 and earnings of $1,258,256, but the best was yet to come.

Retired to WinStar for a stallion venture partnership that included Taylor Made Farm, Speightstown initially stood for $40,000 and was part of a remarkable group of horses that stood their first seasons in 2005, including Tapit, Medaglia d'Oro, and Candy Ride (Arg). All four stallions are regularly among the top 10 leading sires in North America and all stand or have stood for six-figure fees.

To date from 16 crops of racing age, Speightstown has sired 138 black-type winners (9% from starters) and the earners of over $155 million. Among his 65 graded winners are 26 Grade I winners, including Breeders' Cup winners Tamarkuz and Sharing; Travers winner Golden Ticket; Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Haynesfield; distaffer Dance to Bristol; turfers Force the Pass, Seek Again, Competitionofideas and three-time Sovereign Award winner Lady Speightspeare; and sprinters Reynaldothewizard, Jersey Town, Rock Fall, Poseidon's Warrior and dual Sovereign Award-winning sprinter Essence Hit Man.

“Speightstown's rise reminds me of Distorted Humor,” said WinStar president and CEO Elliott Walden in 2013, “that rare ability to sire Grade I quality at all distances and all surfaces with top fillies and colts.”

Although Speightstown never won beyond seven furlongs and raced exclusively on the dirt, a hallmark of his progeny has been versatility, with graded winners both short and long and on both dirt and turf. In addition, despite Speightstown taking several years to mature into a stakes winner himself, he has had his share of black-type winners both as young horses and as older runners. Speightstown's 2020 was a banner year featuring four individual Grade I winners: Echo Town and Charlatan in the U.S., Lady Speightspeare in Canada, and Mozu Superflare in Japan. In 2023, Speightstown has been represented by 106 winners including GI Runhappy Del Mar Futurity victor Prince of Monaco.

In recent years, Speightstown has also made a mark as a burgeoning sire of sires. His son Munnings closed out 2022 among the top 10 leading sires in the U.S. by earnings, finishing just one spot ahead of Speightstown himself, and is currently among the top five leading sires in the U.S. by earnings through 2023. In addition, Central Banker is among the leading sires in New York and Jersey Town sired a Grade I winner in his first crop. Speightstown is well-represented by sons at stud led by new additions Olympiad and Nasvhille along with Charlatan and Lexitonian.

Speightstown is also starting to make an impact as a broodmare sire, as his daughters have produced 62 stakes winners–24 graded–to date, including Grade I winners Aloha West (Hard Spun), Mia Mischief (Into Mischief) and Vekoma (Candy Ride {Arg}), as well as the late Laoban (Uncle Mo).

Speightstown was slated to stand in 2024 for $80,000 LFSN at the time of his death.

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Catching Up with 2000-01 Breeders’ Cup Classic Winner Tiznow

“The American Horse of the Year and the Arc winner are heads apart with a furlong to go in the Classic… Here's the wire, desperately close. Tiznow wins it for America!”

Chances are you can actually hear Tom Durkin's legendary call as you read those words. And chances are listening to the call now will give you goosebumps all over again and bring you straight back to that amazing moment. Tiznow became an American hero that day at Belmont Park, just weeks after what would become known as 9/11.

Still the first and only horse to win back-to-back Breeders' Cup Classics, Tiznow's story is far more than one great victory. The robust California-bred's career reads like a modern-day racing soap opera: sandwiched between the Eclipse Awards, the Grade I races, and the two Classics, he was famously reluctant to train, lost his owner three days after his first Breeders' Cup win, and suffered a back injury that kept him on the sidelines for six months. He was quirky, he was game, and he was flat-out wonderful.

With perhaps a bit more modest pedigree than many stallions, Tiznow also wasn't guaranteed to stand in Kentucky. Thank goodness he did, though. Among his offspring are Breeders' Cup winners Folklore and Tourist and he's proving to be a darn good broodmare sire as well. Tiznow was pensioned from stud duty around this time of the fall in 2020. He remains at WinStar, where the affection stallion manager Larry McGinnis has for the big bay is palpable.

“I led him off the van when he arrived at WinStar,” said McGinnis. “It's been a pleasure to take care of him his whole life.

“He's very good boy. He's retired now and when he's ready to come in the barn, he walks down to the gate and lets us know. His paddock has a hill in it. If we can't see him from the barn, he's on the other side of the hill and he doesn't want to come in. If he's at the top of the hill, we know he'll want to come in soon. We just wait for him to walk down to the gate, because that's when he's ready for us to bring him in, not before. He knows if it's going to get hot and he'll want to come in. We let him tell us.

“He's one of the smartest horses I've been around, probably the smartest. He's just a very cool, collected horse, always in control. He always looks at things and assesses them.

“He didn't like us riding or exercising him when he retired, so we stopped that pretty quick with him. He let his opinion be known. He felt that was work and he'd done that and didn't want to do it anymore.

“He's very, very smart with a good temperament. He was also a very, very fertile horse. One time he got 15-20 mares in foal in a row. That doesn't happen very often.

“He's just always been very intelligent, very cool and collected about everything he's done. It's just a pleasure to be around him.”

Tiznow (1997 bay horse, Cee's Tizzy–Cee's Song, by Seattle Song)

Lifetime record: Horse of the Year, Ch. 3yo colt, Ch. older male, MGISW, 15-8-4-2, $6,427,830

Breeders' Cup connections: B-Cecilia Straub Rubens (CA); O-Michael Cooper and Cecilia Straub-Rubens (2000)/Cees Stable LLC (2001); T-Jay Robbins; J-Chris McCarron.

Current location: WinStar Farm, Versailles, Ky.

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20 Years Celebrating the Legendary Tiznow

As the calendar turns to 2022, the final crop of foals from legendary racehorse and sire Tiznow will become yearlings. Soon-turning 25, Tiznow has sired over 80 blacktype winners including 14 Grade I/Group 1 winners after nearly two decades as a cornerstone stallion at WinStar Farm.

This year, the successful sire enjoyed his first full year of retirement. WinStar Stallion Manager Larry McGinnis said that Tiznow still shares a similar routine to the other stallions in the stud barn.

“He does get a bit more leeway because he's a teacher's favorite,” McGinnis admitted. “If there's a day where he wants to stay out in his paddock, we'll feed him outside. I think he has developed a little bit of a bravado as he's gotten older. He does try to intimidate the young boys as they go through. He does what he wants, when he wants and it will be like that for the rest of his life.”

Such a lifestyle is nothing new for Tiznow, who was well documented on the racetrack for doing most everything on his own terms. McGinnis said that attitude never wavered throughout the blaze-faced bay's career at stud.

“Tiznow is the smartest horse I've ever been around. When we first got him, I noticed that. He looks a lot and nothing fazes him. One time we had him on a tour and a girl got stung by a bee right next to him. She screamed bloody murder and he just stood there. He has never shown that he's afraid of anything.”

Tiznow and McGinnis have developed a special bond as they've shared the past two decades together at WinStar. Before Tiznow's arrival, McGinnis was the assistant manager at Prestonwood Farm as the property transitioned into WinStar Farm.

“They told me that we had a stallion coming in and asked if I wanted to be stallion manager,” he explained. “I didn't realize that the horse coming in was Tiznow.”

Tiznow was no shoo-in to become a successful Kentucky stallion when he first arrived at WinStar, but the grit and determination the California-bred son of Cee's Tizzy showed during his illustrious career on the racetrack was soon reflected in his offspring.

He was the leading freshman sire of his crop after producing 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Folklore and 2009 GI Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed. His success continued throughout his career with the likes of 2008 GI Travers S. hero Colonel John, 2008 GI Belmont S. winner Da' Tara and 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Mile victor and now WinStar sire Tourist.

Tiznow prepares for the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic | Horsephotos

“Tourist is pretty much like his dad-even-keeled,” McGinnis explained. “Nothing much gets him wound up. I've rarely seen one of Tiznow's progeny that didn't have composure and know how to handle things without getting excited about it.”

Tourist and Crestwood Farm's Tizdejavu are the only sons of Tiznow standing in Kentucky today, with several more at stud in regional markets. If his top performer this year in GSW Midnight Bourbon someday joins a stallion program, the colt could be the last of Tiznow's sons to begin a career at stud.

And yet, Tiznow still has his last few crops waiting to show their worth on the racetrack. Fittingly, his final crop that arrived this year came 20 years after the unforgettable day at Belmont Park when Tiznow won his second straight GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Owned by Cees Racing Stable and campaigned to a champion 3-year-old and Horse of the Year season in 2000 by trainer Jay Robbins, Tiznow returned to the Breeders' Cup in 2001 to defend his Classic title with only one win to his resume as a 4-year-old.

Even his regular rider, Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, couldn't be certain of Tiznow's true ability as they approached the starting gate.

“There was always some question in your mind of if he peaked as a 3-year-old,” McCarron said. “But the way he trained, I knew there was more. It was just a question of which Tiznow was going to come to the party. Fortunately, he rose to the occasion on the most important day of his life in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic.”

Sent off as a 7-1 gamble behind the top pick in Juddmonte homebred Aptitude as well as European invaders Galileo (Ire) and Sakhee, Tiznow stalked in third position for most of the trip until McCarron looked out of the corner of his eye to see Sakhee coming to their outside. The pair fought neck and neck down the stretch and as the wire grew closer, Sakhee bobbed his head in front.

“I had it in my mind that I was not going to hit him with the stick,” McCarron explained. “I wanted to let him be the boss. When Sakhee went by me by a neck I thought, 'Well, I've got nothing to lose. I might as well see if he'll respond from a little tap.' So I tapped him once left-handed and I felt him accelerate. He went back on and overtook Sakhee right in the shadow of the wire.”

The roar of the crowd swelled as race caller Tom Durkin exclaimed a line that will forever be held in racing's history book, pronouncing that Tiznow had won it for America.

Tiznow towers over rival Sakhee as he edges past the wire first in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic | Horsephotos

“I don't really know if in my notes previous to that if I was going to say that Tiznow wins it for America,” reflected Durkin. “I don't know, but it was in my subconscious somewhere. Some would argue that it was a rather jingoistic thing to say, but that was the story. Tiznow was carrying an American banner and he was trying to beat a foreign horse, so that was a big story there.”

The 2001 Breeders' Cup was the first international sporting event following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks six weeks earlier. SWAT teams lining the rooftops and security check-ins made for a very abnormal day at Belmont Park.

“When Tom Durkin screamed Tiznow wins it for America, that was a really happy day,” McCarron recalled. “With the devastation and the tragedy of 9/11, people were really longing for something to make them happy. It just so happened that the Yankees won the World Series that year and then when Tiznow wins it for America, that was kind of the icing on the cake.”

Tiznow retired after earning the title of the first and only horse in history to claim back-to-back Breeders' Cup Classics, leaving cherished memories in the hearts of racing fans as well as those who knew him best.

Today, McCarron looks back fondly on Tiznow's days in training when the opinionated and super-sized colt protested from being led into a stall and had to be turned around and backed in, as well as his most memorable antic during his final workout ahead of the 2001 Breeders' Cup when he refused to move forward on the racetrack, standing stoically for 35 minutes before finally moving ahead and putting in a blazing mile-long work.

“He had a very strong will and didn't do anything unless he was ready to do it,” McCarron said. “He was quirky, but what I learned from him was tremendous. He taught me a lot about the relationship between a person and a horse. Once I learned, I tried to figure out what made him tick and just let him be the boss. That's what he wanted, so I just followed his lead and fortunately, we had a lot of success together.”

These days, as both Tiznow and his rider enjoy the laid-back life of retirement in the Kentucky Bluegrass, it isn't uncommon for McCarron to stop in at WinStar. Along with visits from his old friend, Tiznow is still a fan favorite during the tours at WinStar and of course, he is happily looked after by McGinnis and the rest of the WinStar stallion team.

“He's just been kind of a rock,” McGinnis said, reflecting on his two decades with the stallion. “He helped my career out as much as Distorted Humor and Speightstown did. If it wasn't for them, I'd just kind of be a regular Joe. Tiznow was a good, useful sire that was a California-bred and really, if you think of it, shouldn't have been a stallion, but he made himself one by winning two Breeders' Cup Classics. I'm not sure if anybody is ever going to do that again.”

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